FG To Use Returned $322.5m Abacha Loot For Social Investment

The Federal Government has announced plans to use the recovered 322.5 million dollars Abacha loot to fund the Social Investment Scheme.

According to the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, the investment will help address the health and education challenges affecting the poor and vulnerable.

The minister who was speaking at a joint news conference with the Central Bank governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele to wrap up events at the spring meeting of the World Bank /IMF in Washington is optimistic that the success recorded in the nation’s economic rating will yield more results in the days ahead.

The CBN governor disclosed that the nation’s external reserves now stands at 47.93 billion dollars but warned that the figures will keep fluctuating in the meantime.

The Minister had on April 11, 2018, denied controversy surrounding the recovered Abacha loot.

Reports had emerged that the minister allegedly wrote a letter to President Muhammadu Buhari, blocking the payment of $16.9million fees to lawyers for the repatriation of the funds.

In her reaction on her personal Twitter handle, Adeosun said, “Let me make this clear: the media reports claiming that I wrote to the President regarding the Abacha refunds are all false and should be disregarded. There is no controversy whatsoever regarding the recovery.”

Let me make this clear: the media reports claiming that I wrote to the President regarding the Abacha refunds are all false and should be disregarded. There is no controversy whatsoever regarding the recovery. The $322.5m received from the Swiss Govt in Dec 2017 is with @cenbank. https://t.co/6ahsrpDTcR

Similarly, in the statement, the minister insisted that there was no time she wrote a “strongly-worded letter to the President” or any member of the Federal Executive Council (FEC), objecting to the payment of fees to two lawyers for the recovery of Abacha funds.

The minister also denied claims of controversy surrounding the Abacha recovery, disclosing that the sum of US$322,515,931.83 was received into a Special Account in the Central Bank of Nigeria on December 18, 2017, from the Swiss Government.

“For the avoidance of doubt, there is no controversy concerning the recovery of the Abacha monies from the Swiss Government,” she said.

Meanwhile, the Minister who led the Nigerian delegation to the 2018 IMF-World Bank spring meeting, also affirmed that the country’s positive growth outlook would be sustained.